Source: RUN – Issue Number 25 – January 1986

RUN primarily covered the Commodore 64/128 though it covered the VIC-20 early in its life and the Plus/4 and C-16 for about 5 minutes. The January 1986 issue includes:

Features

• Making The Video Connection – A tutorial for enhancing your VHS videos with titles, special effects and more from your Commodore 64. Some of the software used here includes Designer’s Pencil (Activision), The Paint Shop (Broderbund), and Graphics Basic (HesWare).

• Commodore Carousel – Using your commodore to control a slide projector. Conceptually, this could be used for educational purposes to display images at appropriate times in combination with other software.

• The Creative Computer – How one person uses their VIC-20 as a television title generator, graphics design, speech synthesis, word processor, and music synthesizer.

• Pulsing Pictures – A type-in low resolution keyboard graphics animation program.

• Telecommunications…BRS/After Dark and The Knowledge Index – An overview of two online information retrieval services. These services let you search for information in categories such as science and medicine, business and finance, reference, education, and more. They basically provide access to various databases with bibliographic data. You paid by the minute or by the hour for access.

• CP/M Treasure Trove – An overview of the user groups, bulletin boards, and other sources from which you can acquire CP/M software for your Commodore 128.

• Add Elegance to Your Program Listings – A type-in program that will clean up your own program listings by providing uniform spacing.

• RUN’s Great Communicator – RunTerm Plus – The second and final part of a type-in telecommunications program and associated documentation.

• Auto-Run – A type-in utility that you can use on your own programs to make them auto run after loading.

• A-Mazeing Word Jumbler – A type-in educational program in which you must spell the word correctly to complete the maze.

• Software Buyer’s Guide 1985 – Part II – Part two of a guide for some of the best software available for the Commodore 64 including over 200 titles. The categories included in this part include Music & Voice, Personal Productivity, Telecommunications, Tutorials, and Utilities.

Departments

• RUNning Ruminations – Editorial on recent changes in the telecommunications field.

• Magic – Short programming tricks including a Christmas card, a trick to fly through walls in Zaxxon, an undelete utility, and more.

• Software Gallery – Reviews of White Lighting (a Forth based graphics development system), Winter Games (one of my favorites), Stunt Flyer, 1541 Disk Drive Alignment Program, Project: Space Station, The Original Boston Computer Diet, and Success with Alegbra Series.

• The Resource Center – A new column that focuses on Commodore computers in education.

• Commodore Clinic – Questions answered related to Passport’s MIDI interface, 16-bit processors on an 8-bit bus, SX-64, repairs, using the MSD dual disk drive with the Commodore 128, and more.

• Hardware Gallery – A look at new hardware including a cartridge expander from Navarone Industries and HomeWriter 10 dot-matrix printer from Epson,
• Mail RUN – Letters from readers about checksums for older type-in programs, changing Disk ID, and more.

• RUN’s 1985 Index – An index of all of the articles and reviews published in RUN in 1985.

• New Products RUNdown – A brief look at new products including new software from Free Spirit, Business Pro-Pak from SourceView, Paperclip for the Commodore 128, a disk management system for the Commodore 64, CometWatch to help with spotting Halley’s Comet, Fleet System 2 for the Commodore 128, Personal Portfolio Manager for the C64, new scenery disks for Flight Simulator, and more.

• Coming Attractions – Articles on Ultra hi-res graphics on the C-128, C-128 custom character sets, the 1571 disk drive, and more.

…and more!

Source: Compute!’s Gazette – Issue Number 8 – February 1984

There were a few different machine specific spin-offs from Compute! over the years but the only one that really seemed to have long term success was Gazette which covered Commodore 8-bit machines (which meant mostly the Commodore 64). The February 1984 issue of Compute!’s Gazette includes:

Features

• PBS’s New Computer Series – An article on a new PBS series called “Bits and Bytes”. It was only around for one season but it was followed up by Bits and Bytes 2 in 1991.

• The Inner World of Computers, Part 4: The Inside Story – The fourth part of this tutorial on the inner workings of computers covers binary arithmetic.

• Getting Started With A Disk Drive, Part 4: Data Files – A guide to reading and writing files in BASIC.

• Top 40: Comparing The Software And Record Industries – The similarities and differences between the record industry and the software industry.

• Inside View: Steve Punter, The Programmer Behind WordPro – An interview with Steve Punter, the programmer behind the WordPro word processor.

Games

• Haunted Mansion – A type-in action game in which you must rescue cats from ghosts. Versions for both the VIC-20 and Commodore 64.

• Astro-PANIC! – A type-in arcade style game with a resemblance to games like Galaga for the Commodore 64.

• React – An type-in action/strategy game for both the VIC-20 and Commodore 64.

• Checkers – A type-in implementation of Checkers for the VIC-20 and Commodore 64.

Review

• Fourth Encounter (VIC-20) – A pretty generic space shoot-em-up.

• Suspended (Commodore 64) – One of many classic interactive fiction games from Infocom.

• Cassette Interface for VIC/64 – An interface designed to allow any cassette recorder to be used with a VIC-20 or Commodore 64.

• Attack of the Phantom Karate Devils (Commodore 64) – An arcade style game in which you play the role of a ninja.

Education/Home Applications

• Computing For Families: The New King Of The Mountain – A detailed look at the KoalaPad and KoalaPainter.

• Speed Reader – A type-in educational program designed to improve reading skills.

• Typing Derby – A type-in program designed to improve your typing skills.

• VIC Piano – A type-in music program that turns your VIC-20 into a piano.

• Cassette Cataloger – A type-in program that helps you organize your tape library by keeping track of tape, program, and counter information.

• Homonym Practice – A type-in educational program designed to teach homonyms.

Programming

• Multicolor Character Generator For VIC-20 – A type-in program designed to simplify the task of designing multi-colored characters.

• Machine Language For Beginners: Tapping Into BASIC – Looking at BASIC as a collection of machine language programs and tapping into those from your own ML programs.

• The Beginner’s Corner: String Variables And Functions – An introduction to string variables and functions in BASIC.

• How To Use Arrays – A tutorial explaining arrays and how to use them in BASIC.

• Power BASIC: Auto Line Numbering – Short type-in programs for the Commodore 64 and VIC-20 which will automatically generate line numbers for your BASIC programs based on your parameters.

Departments

• The Editor’s Notes – An introduction to a new editor and new things coming up for Gazette.

• Gazette Feedback – Letters from readers about pointers to the top of BASIC memory, how DATA statements are stored, abbreviated IF statements, Apple vs. Commodore variations of the GET statement, mixing upper and lower case letters, rounding errors, the RND function, merging programs, and more.

• Simple Answers to Common Questions – Questions answered about printer (and other) buffers and the difference between “coldstart” and “warmstart”.

• HOTWARE: A Lok At THis Month’s Best Sellers – A look at the top software in several categories. The number ones include Jumpman (Commodore 64 Entertainment), WordPro 3 Plus/64 with Spell Right (Commodore 64 Home/Business/Utility), Dungeons of the Algebra Dragons (Commodore 64 Educational), Gridrunner (VIC-20 Entertainment), Quick Brown Fox (VIC-20 Home/Business/Utility), Touch Typing Tutor (VIC-20 Educational).

• Horizons: 64 – The Alien Group’s Voice Box speech synthesizer plus VIC-20 and Commodore 64 similarities and differences.

• VICreations: A Window Into The VIC-20 – A type-in program that will literally allow you to look inside the VIC-20’s memory.

• News & Products – PILOT II for the Commodore 64; new games for the C64 including Waterline, Suicide Strike, Motocross and Slalom; a 16K VIC-20 memory expansion board; Flight Simulator II; control modules for controlling appliances with the C64 or VIC-20; Ultima II: Escape From Mt. Drash for the VIC-20; and much more.

…and more!